Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film "Starship Troopers," based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, takes place in the 23rd century when Earth is embroiled in a bloody, violent, generations-long war with giant intelligent insects from a distant planet. Earth has devolved into a perpetual war machine. The film follows a new generation of sexy young recruits whose entire lives — their school and their media — are all constructed specifically to sell them on the positive qualities of war and their inevitable duty to become soldiers in the conflict. The characters are all bright and attractive and swallow the propaganda without a wisp of awareness. Verhoeven's film is a broad, acidic satire about the nature of propaganda and a warning against Orwellian notions of perpetual conflict.

Denise Richards played a character named Carmen Ibanez, an aspiring pilot who would like to fly the titular starships to conflict sites. Early in the movie,...